WHAT HAST THOU IN THE HOUSE?”

Acts 16:15; 1 Kings 17:7-16; 2 Kings 4:1-7

I read the verse in Acts 16 because I was particularly interested in what Lydia said: “come into my house and abide there”. There was a certain amount of faith involved in that. Not only did she ask in relation to whether or not she had been judged to be faithful to the Lord, but she had the confidence and faith to say, “come into my house and abide there”.

In the scripture in 1 Kings, we see a widow woman who had lost her husband, and she was found to be faithful. God directed Elijah to go there and he went and found that she was ready to die. We can see that everything here in this world has been marked, and is marked, by death. But it took the man of God to come and show her that there was something more than death in view. He said to her, “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she said, As Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said to her, Fear not; go, do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first”. What is particularly interesting about this woman is how quickly she was willing to come under the authority of Elijah. I think we will find in our own houses that, as we are willing to come under the authority of the Man Christ Jesus, we find out that there is food available that will see us all the way through. The meal speaks of Christ and the oil speaks of the power of the Spirit of God. That is why this house could be a house where Elijah could abide. This woman fed Elijah for a full year; he abode there for a whole year and they were sustained – by what? In type, they were sustained by feeding on Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Is that what is found in our houses? Maybe it is there, and you do not even realise it. Maybe you have more in your home than you know. Maybe it would just take a little touch from the man of God to spur you on, for you to realise that, yes, Christ is there and you have power in the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life in spite of what is going on around. Do you know what was going on around this widow woman? There was a famine, there was no food at all, there was not even food for the man of God. You may think that the situation is absolutely hopeless, that we cannot go on any further, that everybody is going away. No! In her house there was everything she needed. Christ in type was there. She understood, as she had to do with the man of God, that there was food to enable her to go on. What was going to be the fruit of it? The woman and her son were going to be able to live. Live just for now? No, it was food that was going to sustain them through the famine. This is a wilderness that we live in. If you want to seek anything of Christianity in this world, you will find that it is sorely lacking; there is no food there at all. As a matter of fact, you will die. But then you see what was in the household, in that safe area. There was the meal and there was the oil found there, and it was enough even for the man of God. You might say, It seems it should be quite the other way around, that the man of God should have been sustaining the woman. Not so. This woman was faithful to God and she had enough to sustain the man of God. She was also sustained individually in her house, along with her son, and that is wonderful. They were sustained because in principle they knew the Man Christ Jesus.

In 2 Kings 4 we find Elisha, who met with another woman who needed help. Elisha was a man who had a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. For those who maybe do not remember, Elijah had previously come to the point where he thought he was the only one left, that he was the only faithful man left on the face of the earth, and he told God so (I Kings 19:10). God brought in a strong wind and an earthquake and fire, then a soft gentle voice, but Elijah went out of the cave he had been in, and he told God again that he was the only one left. But God said, I have another man in mind. He told Elijah to return along the way, and that he would find Elisha. Elisha learned from Elijah; he was attracted to Elijah and he wanted to be with him. Then he asked Elijah for a double portion of his spirit, and Elijah said, “if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee” (2 Kings 2:9,10). Elisha saw Elijah being taken up by God. There had been a lot of fear in Elijah’s life, but I do not think you find that with Elisha. He was a man who had a double portion, he was a man who had been established in the ways of God. In principle, he understood the ways of Christ and was a man filled by the power of the Spirit of God.

That became very evident with this woman in 2 Kings 4. Elisha went into her house and she was in the same situation, she too was a widow. She has lost her husband, a prophet, but this man of God could come in and visit her. He went in but did not ask that she might make him something. Elisha rather placed it on her. I put this same question to you. What do you have in your house to sustain life? Sometimes we might have to think of all the things that we would need to remove before the man of God can come in. That might be so, but I want you to think about what you have in your house that could be used for the glory of God. Not in somebody else’s house but in your house. She told Elisha that she had a terrible debt, and that is true of all of us; we have a terrible debt that needs to be paid. But she also said, “Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil”. Elisha told her, “borrow … empty vessels … and pour out into all those vessels”. Then it says, “And the oil stayed”; we could say that it is a supply of oil that would not diminish.

As we go on in the pathway and we run into deep exercises, we might think and feel that things are impossible, but as you consider the power of the Spirit of God, you find that there is a resource in that power that is inexhaustible. You cannot exhaust what is there in the power of the Spirit of God. Not only is it inexhaustible, but in the presence of this man with the double portion, there was enough oil for more than her house. Think of that! Do you have something in your house that is for the glory of God, and not only that but it is enough to sustain many other households? Elisha tells her “Go, borrow for thyself … vessels”. These vessels might not have been the same size, but there were plenty of them, and where did they come from? They came from the neighbours, they came from those that were near to her. The Lord says in the parable in relation to the man going down to Jericho, “Which now of these three seems to thee to have been neighbour of him who fell into the hands of the robbers?”, Luke 10:36. The lawyer answered, “He that shewed him mercy” – the Samaritan.

I think that these neighbours who lent the vessels were like persons who, we might say, are in fellowship with us, they might be in the local company. They have something that you need, they have a little money. This widow had a debt that she could not pay; she was about to lose her sons, they were about to be bondmen. In type, they were about to come under the chains and the power of Satan and this world. But there were those who said, We are willing to help out – here, take an empty vessel. And she would say, I will bring you a little oil. It was evident that in her life and in her sons’ lives, she was now in type associated with a Man who lives, a Man in glory. Her sons brought in all the vessels they could find, and she poured out that oil and sold it to the neighbours. Her debt was completely paid off as a result of what she had, that little bit of oil in her house. Go and look for it! There might be something in your house that will affect the whole of the company for the glory of God.

You might be very small, as you might think, in the eyes of God. Like the other widow woman, this woman thought that there was no hope, but she had two sons, and she came in touch with the man with the double portion. They had enough not just for her and her sons, but she could provide for the whole company. What came out of her household? Sons willing and ready to serve the neighbours. What blessing! It is like Obed-Edom’s house – sixty-two persons that could serve in the house of God (1 Chron.26:8). It must have overjoyed her heart. It does not seem the oil ever ran out. In principle, the power of the Spirit of God kept working in a greater way, and every vessel was full. Not partially full; there was no room for anything of idolatry to intrude. It was in the power of the Spirit of God typically that these persons could be serviceable in the assembly, and to Christ.

May it be so for His name’s sake.

Calgary

17 February 2018

M.J. Klassen